Invention Timeline - James Cook, English Navigator; Discovered the Sandwich Islands, Hawaii, Maui and Named New Caledonia
b. October 28, 1728 and d. February 14, 1779
English navigator. Circumnavigated the globe. He discovered and named New Caledonia and in 1776 commanded an expedition to find a northwest passage by way of Behring Strait. He reached latitude 65°. In January, 1778, he discovered the Sandwich Islands, Hawaii and Maui; in 1779 on the return voyage at Hawaii a chief was accidentally killed and Cook and a number of his party were slain.
Is there a man, that, from some lofty steep,
Views in his wide survey the boundless deep,
When its vast waters, lined with sun and shade,
Wave beyond wave in serried distance fade
To the pale sky;-or views it, dimly seen,
The shifting screens of drifted mist between,
As the huge cloud dilates its sable form,
When grandly curtain’d by the approaching storm,
Who feels not his awed soul with wonder rise
To Him whose power created sea and skies,
Mountains and deserts, giving to the sight
The wonders of the day and of the night?
—Christopher Columbus: Joanna Baillie
1446—The Portuguese discovered the West Coast of Africa.
1460—Juan Ponce de Leon, discoverer of Florida, born. In 1521, he died.
1497, November 20—Vasco de Gama made the first passage to the East Indies by rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
1498—Vasco de Gama discovered a passage to India. In 1524 he returned to India.
